Users often download software programs from the internet and other sources to run on their local computers. Downloading software allows users to quickly and conveniently access a wide variety of programs. Unfortunately, downloading programs from unknown or unverified sources can create various problems for users. Such problems range from the very serious, such as infection by computer viruses, spyware and other malicious code, to the less catastrophic but still significant, such as the downloading of unreliable, poorly performing or incompatible software.
Trusted parties can rate software programs, such that users can be provided with a relevant reputation score before downloading a file. Such reputation scores can rate software for likelihood of malicious code infection, as well as other issues such as performance and stability. Such a reputation scoring service can provide very useful information. For example, a user could be informed that the file s/he is about to download crashes on 30% of computers, or that the provider of the file is known for distributing programs infected with viruses. This type of information warns the user against downloading the file. However, the user is now stuck—s/he knows that the file should not be downloaded given its poor reputation, but does not know what a better alternative would be. It would be desirable to address this shortcoming.